Giffords stars in gun control ad

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords urges America to stiffen gun control laws — to “get this done” — in a somber new television ad set to air in the hometowns of the top four congressional leaders

The spot opens with black-and-white images reminding viewers of shooting massacres in Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., Oak Creek, Wis., and Newtown, Conn. Giffords, who was shot in the head during the Tucson attack in January 2011, narrates the entire ad and appears in it with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly.

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“We have a problem, where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school,” Giffords says, her speech still affected by the damage to her brain. “But there are solutions we can agree on, even gun owners like us. Take it from me, Congress must act. Let’s get this done.”

The 30-second ad, the first from Giffords’s new gun control super PAC, is designed to build support for legislation requiring universal background checks for gun buyers. It will run in Washington and media markets reaching the constituents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

On Tuesday night, the group plans to bookend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address by airing the ad on cable television in the Washington market. Giffords and Kelly will attend that speech to a joint session of Congress as the guests of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), who was also shot in the Tucson rampage and later succeeded Giffords in the House.

Last month, Obama proposed a series of new measures to combat gun violence, but it would take congressional action to implement many of the most consequential of them, including requiring background checks as a predicate for nearly all gun sales, limiting the capacity of ammunition clips and reinstating a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the gun control proposals nearly two weeks ago, and a bipartisan “gang of four” senators — Democrats Chuck Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mark Kirk of Illinois — is working on a proposal that would require more gun buyers to undergo background checks.

But there are still differences among majority Senate Democrats about which provisions to include in a gun control bill, and House Republican leaders, who generally oppose gun restrictions, have made no move toward legislating. People involved with the Giffords group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, hope the ad will put pressure on congressional leaders to act and provide momentum for background checks, specifically. Pia Carusone, executive director of ARS, said the first ad, made by veteran Democratic media man J.J. Balaban, isn’t likely to be the last one.

“I suspect we’re going to be doing a lot more of them,” she said.

And ARS isn’t alone.

POLITICO reported on Monday that Independence USA PAC, a super PAC funded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has now spent more than $1 million trying to prevent former Rep. Debbie Halvorson from winning a special election in the Chicago-based district left open when former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned. Halvorson, who has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, is one of several candidates competing for the seat.